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CIA Insurance sent us this infographic!

It uses a pretty consistent color palette and some good data visualization to tell the story of what renters and landlords alike think of renting.

One thing to note is the varied illustration styles and fonts throughout; it’s important to set a tone for the aesthetic of your infographic and stick to it. The information should be the star of the infographic, and big changes in appearance can distract from that.

Also, when comparing data, it’s best to use apples-to-apples comparisons. For example, section 8 is “How Easy Are They To Get Hold Of?” and has 2 data points that directly relate to one another — how many people think their landlord is easy/hard to get a hold of. Ideally, both would be a percentage or both a fraction so that they clearly add up to a whole, but instead one is a percentage and the next a fraction. This makes the viewer do a bit of extra work to calculate how these compare. It could have been shown as “4/5 say easy, 1/5 say hard” to remedy that.

In all I’d give this infographic a B-, since it’s on the right track but could use a few housekeeping tips to get it into great shape.

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This infographic was submitted to us by Renters Alarm Co.

It contains a few interesting scenes of moving and households and uses primarily iconography and illustration to tell the story, rather than data visualization (with the exception of the alarm clock for the stat, “A burglary happens every 14 seconds”). It’s good that text is kept to a minimum throughout. (One tiny typo note: the only stat that has a period at the end is, “Only 12% of burglaries are resolved by the police.” Make sure to be consistent on whether you’re using periods!)

It strikes me as a little bit odd that Washington D.C. gets a “prize” for having the highest property crime rates, though of course I know that that is an obvious symbol to use for anything that’s #1. It doesn’t seem like something they’d award a prize for, but that’s a small note. I’m more wondering why the circles for “2nd” and “10th” are larger than all the other circles.

In all I’d give this infographic a B. It tells its story in a concise and engaging way, but it could benefit from an intro paragraph and a bit more attention to detail with the way data is displayed.

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This infographic was submitted to us by the Electrical Safety Council, who also provided this brief description:

Electrical safety matters for landlords and tenants.

UK landlords are putting millions of private tenants in danger and exposing themselves to financial risks – by not fulfilling their electrical safety obligations.

Do you know who has responsibility for electrical safety in rented homes? Here are the worrying statistics.

This graphic uses eye-catching imagery and colors to draw in the viewer. Numbers are big and bold so that the statistics are easy to spot, and the overall length is pretty short so it’s a quick experience to go through and get all of the relevant info.

I do like the technique of making all numbers large, bold, and pink! However, I’d love to see them portrayed with charts, graphs, or pictograms as well, to cut down on the amount of reading the viewer has to do/provide them easier visual access to the data.

It’s also a bit visually jarring to go from photography in the header to illustration — and then again to see the ancient “wanted” poster in the midst of a modern background of illustrated circuits. These spots make it difficult to determine what the unifying aesthetic of the infographic is. We typically recommend against mixing illustration and photography (as this infographic does in a few places) because it can distract or confuse the viewer and often doesn’t “mesh” well.

In all I’d give this infographic a C. Good info and not too much text (except in the final section, which is text-only), but the design could use a bit of unification so that it aids the message rather than detracting from it. Additionally, data visualization will cut out a bit of the work that the text currently has to do.

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This infographic comes from the people over at MovingAuthorities.com. The message here is rather straightforward: even in a down market, it still makes sense to invest in a house. While the point is made with adequate data visualization, some of the graphs feel a bit crowded and confusing, which takes away from the overall message. That being said, the infographic uses a clean color palette and good data visualization to effectively tell a story.

First off, the color scheme works well with the data being conveyed. It’s not too harsh on the eyes, and helps draw attention to the images and makes the graphics pop off the page. It’s clean and simple, which helps tremendously. The third graph in the infographic, comparing a decade’s worth of unstable stock prices compared to relatively predictable real estate prices, really helps drive home the safety and value of home investment even in a hostile market and doesn’t require a ton of text to explain its significance.

The first two graphs, however, seem a bit half-baked. By including the amount by which homeowner’s net worth is greater than renters (x31 in 1998, x36 in 2001, etc.) adds a bit too much to the graph and could distract the reader and negate the graph’s impact. The visual data in itself is impacting enough to be left as is. A much larger stack of gold coins for homeowners vs a much smaller stack for renters. The second graph showing tax savings also requires too much reading and analyzing.

Apart from the first two graphs, the infographic as a whole does a great job with avoiding being too text heavy. Statistics and graphs are generally well explained and serve their purpose in telling a clear story.